Agent Ostara
by Flying Saucers
Summary: A new agent joins Odd Squad! But can she be trusted?
1. Chapter 1

"Odd Squad! Hey, thanks for coming, dudes!"

Otto and Olive hurried across the theater stage to where the rock band had set up. Olive, Otto, and the band exchanged high fives, then got down to business.

"What seems to be the problem, sir?"

"It's this axe, man!" The bass main guitarist handed his guitar to Otto. "It's... Like, just try it, okay?"

Otto clutched the instrument, grinning from ear to ear. "Seriously?"

Olive winced. "Seriously?"

Whooping, Otto struck a rock star pose and strummed the guitar strings. "THANK YOU CLEVELA..."

A deluge of water fell on Otto, drenching him.

He stood there a moment, blinking and dripping, then tried again. "THANK YOU CLE..."

Another deluge. Otto spat out a stream of water.

He tried again. "THAN..."

After the third deluge, he stood there, sopping wet, nodding and scowling.

The drummer leaned over. "Can you, like, not do that, dude? We've got electrical equipment and stuff here..."

Otto glowered at him.

Olive reached over and unplugged a small cord from the electric guitar. "Try it now."

Otto looked at her suspiciously. Then, bracing himself, he strummed the strings. Nothing happened.

"THANK YOU CLEVELAND!" He struck a pose.

"Whoa!" The guy took his guitar back and tried it himself, playing some chords. "Thanks, Odd Squad!"

Olive nodded while Otto wrung out his jacket. "Happy to be of service, sir! Have a nice day!"

They turned to leave, Olive producing a gadget and zapping it at Otto. "Towelinator."

A big, fluffy towel materialized in Otto's arms; he used it to dry off. "So, what'd you do?"

Olive shrugged. "I unplugged the wah-wah pedal."

"The... wah-wah pedal." Otto considered. "That's the best he could do, eh?"

"It's Fan-Fiction. We'll be lucky if we make it through without being completely out of character."

They ducked behind an amp and disappeared.

#

"THERE YOU TWO ARE!" Ms. O glared at the duo as they entered her office. "Nothing very odd has happened!"

Olive and Otto looked at each other. "Don't you mean...?"

"I know what I mean!" Ms. O pounded her desk, then leaned back. "As it happens, I didn't call you to give you a case." She took a sip of juice to draw out the suspense. "Instead, I'm asking you to mentor an agent."

She gestured toward the couch where a young girl in an Odd Squad uniform sat fidgeting nervously and pulling at the cuffs of her shirt-sleeves. She had a pudding-bowl haircut and bright, curious eyes which gleamed behind a thick pair of Coke-bottle glasses.

"That's Agent Ostara." Ms. O rustled through the papers on her desk until she found the right forms. "It says here she's an agent in training who's recently moved here from Moose Factory and she needs someone to show her around." Ms. O looked at Olive and Otto. "That'd be you."

"Hey, no problem!" Otto went over and shook the nervous young lady's hand.

Olive followed, smiling. "Happy to have you on the team!"

"Thanks," Ostara adjusted her glasses. "I've heard so much about you both. I just hope I won't be too much of a bother..."

"Don't worry about it!" Otto grinned. "The more the merrier!"

"Right!" Olive nodded. "We can always use an extra hand..." Then she remembered where she was. "FIGURATIVELY! I MEAN FIGURATIVELY!"

Ms. O put the extra-handinator back in the drawer.

Just then, Oscar bustled in. "Hey, guys! Ms. O, you wanted to see me about...?" Looking around the room, he suddenly noticed Ostara. "Oh! Um... hi!"

"Hi." Ostara smiled gently at him.

He couldn't help smiling back. "Hi. Um... hi!"

Ms. O cleared her throat. Shamefaced, Oscar wheeled back to face her.

"That's Agent Ostara. She's going to be working with Otto and Olive awhile. She'll need some gadgets before going out in the field. Agent Ostara, this is Oscar, our head scientist."

Oscar fiddled with his glasses. "Hi!"

Ostara nodded. "Hi!"

"So..." Oscar swung his arms, coughing. "Um... Heh, heh... Let's... Um, let's... get you some gadgets!"

He led her out of the room down to the lab.

Otto giggled as soon as they were gone. "Was he BLUSHING?"

Ms. O sighed. "They grow up so fast..."

#

A few weeks later...

It was a lovely spring afternoon in the park and the birds were singing opera. _L'Orteo, Pagliacci, The Marriage of Figaro,_ dozens more, all at the same time. The cacophony was indescribable.

In the midst of the din The Noisemaker danced, the bells on his costume jingling.

"Oh beautiful, beautiful noise! Oh, I love my lovely, noisy noise! More, I must have more!" He spun about, brandishing his new gadget, and zapped a sparrow. The sparrow immediately launched into an aria from _Carmen._

He twirled, freezing in mid-spin when he saw Otto and Olive running towards him.

"ODD SQUAD, ODD SQUAD, STOP RIGHT THERE, NOISEMAKER!"

"I.. I... I won't!" The Noisemaker stumbled. "And you can't make me! So there!"

He pointed his gadget at the two agents and fired. Olive dodged just in time. Otto found himself singing _Seid uns zum Zweiten Mi Wilkommen_ from _The Magic Flute._

"Ha! And now... I flee!"

While Olive saw to her confused and vocally challenged partner, The Noisemaker ran through the park, almost colliding with a waste-bin, slipping on wet leaves, then dodging and leaping between two trees.

"Oh, I am getting away! I have succeeded in defeating Odd Squad!"

"NOT SO FAST!"

Ostara stepped out from behind a tree, zapping him with a gadget of her own. "Hushinator!"

The Noisemaker's mouth moved but no sound came out. Gasping silently, he shook his bells. No sound. Agent Ostara circled him as he flapped his arms, trying to make his accordion flaps work. They didn't.

Frantic, the Noisemaker yelled and raged noiselessly, then fell to his knees, pleading.

"Only after you fix all the trouble you've caused!"

Whimpering, The Noisemaker nodded.

#

"That was AWESOME, Ostara!" Otto said as soon as he got his voice back.

As Owen's team led Noisemaker away, Olive bought three soft pretzels from a street vendor.

Ostara stared at the ground. "Well, I... I'm glad I was able to help... I just happened to be in the right place..."

"Will you stop it?" Olive gently chided her, handing her a pretzel. "You just took out a villain single-handed!"

"It was only the Noisemaker..."

"The Noisemaker can be tricky," Olive reminded her.

"Exactly," Otto chimed in. "Will you stop being so down on yourself? You're doing great!"

"Thank you..." Ostara smiled weakly. "I... Everyone's been so nice to me..."

Otto eyed her pretzel. "Say, y'gonna eat that?"

She handed it over to him. Olive took a bite out of her own pretzel to establish ownership.

"Just keep at it!" Olive said around a mouthful of food. "I'm sure you're gonna have a great future at Odd Squad!"

Ostara looked away, sighing.

#

At the end of the day, Ostara went to the lab. She found Oscar fiddling with a battered old record player.

"Oh! Uh... Hi, Ostara!" Oscar made some adjustments to the record player. "I'm just trying to fix my Great-Aunt Fay's old phonograph." He pressed some buttons and checked over the power cord. "It hasn't been playing right lately. And she gets fidgety if she can't listen to her music. Lately, she's started baking stuff."

"Oh?" Ostara walked over to a pile of old records. "Is she a good cook?"

"Well, that's kind of the thing. She doesn't bake food." He sighed. "Totally ruined Mom's ceramic clown figurines..."

He flipped the machine over and plugged it in. "There, that should do it! Could'ja hand me one of those records so I can give it a spin?"

A few seconds later, a scratchy old 45 was playing.

Ostara half-smiled. "That's a... That's a really nice song..."

"Really?" Revolving his head, Oscar read the name off the spinning disc. "It's... Uh... Oh yeah, that Paper Moon song, by the guy who played Jiminy Cricket."He blinked, a bit dizzy. "So, um..." Oscar tried to lean casually against his workbench and missed. Stumbling, he recovered quickly and grabbed his lapels. "What brings you to the lab?"

"Oh yeah," Ostara fished around in her pockets. "I need to return these." She produced a couple gadgets and handed them to Oscar.

"Thanks!" Oscar looked the gadgets over. "Hey, the cherry-on-topinator! Nobody ever takes that one! " Ostara's face had gone blank. She started, as if waking up. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Everyone's been so nice to me..." She stopped, like she was about to say something else but had been cut off.

"Yeah, well, that's Odd Squad! One big happy family!"

Ostara was trembling.

"Come on, what's wrong?"

"I..." She made a clicking noise deep in her throat. "I..." She clicked again and shook her head. "I wish I deserved it."

"Okay, look," Oscar adjusted his glasses. "I don't know why you feel that way. And maybe it's none of my business. But you're welcome here. Everything's fine. Ms. O says you're shaping up to be a terrific agent."

Ostara's mouth opened and closed and she still kept making the clicking noise in her throat. "I'm... I'm not... I'm not a good person... I don't belong here..."

"Listen," Oscar was very serious now. "If you did something wrong, you can tell Ms. O." He chuckled. "I know it's kinda hard to believe, but she's very understanding."

"It's not that..." Ostara's face kept almost going blank, then snapping back. "I like all of you so much..."

"And we like you too." Oscar smiled at her. She couldn't help smiling back.

"But I'm... I..." She shook her head, unable to get the words out.

"Look, something y'gotta know. It's like Ms. O always says, what a person does is way more important than what they are." He pondered. "Or maybe that was on a plaque somewhere. Or maybe Ms. O has it on a plaque, I dunno..."

Ostara chuckled.

"Yeah. Um... So, I'm almost finished up here. I... Um..." He started blushing ferociously. "I was thinking about going to the zoo after work." The blush became even deeper. "Y'know... If you wanna come too, that'd be great." He looked away quickly. "I mean, you don't have to do if you don't wanna, it's just... I mean, if you wanna..."

Ostara beamed. "I'd be glad to."

"You would?" Oscar fumbled nervously. "I mean... Great!" He stumbled around the lab. "Just lemme get my coat and stuff and I'll walk you to the tube lobby!"

#

Hours later, Ostara stepped from the bus onto the sidewalk in a quiet, desolate part of town. She stood a second, smiling at the tiny multi-colored glass platypus Oscar had bought her at the zoo giftshop. Her eyes closed.

A moment later, all expression faded from her face. Her arms dropped to her sides. The little glass figure slipped from her hand and shattered on the concrete.

She walked across the street, through a vacant lot, and into an abandoned building. She turned left, went up a flight of stairs and into a sideroom.

Odd Todd looked up from his pizza. "About time you got here."

Ostara stood, swaying slightly, her face blank, her eyes staring straight ahead. Todd got up from the battered old couch he'd been sitting on and wiped his hands on his lapels.

"Working late or something? Good girl. Build up their trust."

He took a small screwdriver from his pocket, flipped up Ostara's glasses, and undid the metal bolts behind each of her ears, sliding off her face to expose the circuitry underneath.

"Oscar thinks his Oscarbots are sooooooo great..." Odd Todd sneered. "I'd like to see him come up with a robot like this. Artificial personality, simulated emotions, working thoughts and feelings..." He made some adjustments. "I'll bet you're even dreaming now..."

He replaced her face, bolting it on securely, and patted her arm. "And tomorrow, you're going to help me destroy Odd Squad forever."

#


	2. Chapter 2

"OSTARA!"

Ostara exited the tube room to see Ms. O standing above her on the stairs. "YOU'RE NEARLY AN HOUR LATE!"

"I-I-I'm sorry, Ms. O," Ostara adjusted her coat. "I... I was looking for something and I lost track of the time..."

Ms. O considered. "Okay. But see that it doesn't happen again!"

Ostara nodded.

"Otto and Olive are out on a case. They should be back soon. In the meantime, find something to occupy yourself."

"Yes, ma'am," Ostara said quietly.

Ms. O hesitated. She felt like Ostara was about to say something else. But the girl agent turned away. Shrugging, Ms. O went back to her office.

#

Ostara's mouth moved and she made clicking noises in the back of her throat. For a moment, she struggled to go after Ms. O. Then her programming took over and she headed to the security station.

"Oh. Hi, Ostara!" Owen looked up from his comic. "How're things going?"

"I, um..." She froze for a moment. Then her voice returned, flatter and colder than usual. Owen didn't notice. "I'm looking for Otto and Olive. Have you seen them?"

"Otto and Olive?" Owen swiveled around in his chair. "I'm pretty sure I saw them just a second a..."

Quickly, Ostara pressed the back of Owen's neck. An electrical charge from her fingers knocked him unconscious. She caught him as he slumped forward, then arranged him in his chair with the comic over his face. Hearing footsteps, she hid behind a console.

Oren sneered to Olaf as he walked past. "Sleeping again. I wish I knew how he gets away with it..."

Olaf shrugged. "I'm Olaf."

Ostara watched until they were gone. Then she set to work shutting down the security systems.

#

Meanwhile, Oscar was taking advantage of a rare slow day in the lab to sort through the gadgets.

"Lessee, hole-in-one-inator..." He set a gadget aside. "Tieinator... Bowtieinator... Bowtiepastainator... Whoah, better not get those two mixed up..." He set the two gadgets far apart. "Kitteninator... Reorganize-your-sock-drawerinator... Make-squirels-dance the Watusinator... Why haven't I used this lately? Hatinator... Otherhatinator... Reallybighatinator... Reallybigfancyhatinor... Capinator..." He sorted through the pile, then rubbed his chin. "Hmm. Where's that black-holinator? I know it was here yesterday..." He sifted through the remaining gadgets in the pile. "Oh, well. It'll turn it up eventually. Where was I? Oh yeah, orangejuicinator... Gorillainator... Freezinator..."

Lurking behind a pillar, Ostara stared at Oscar, trying to force herself to go to him. Then her face went blank and she headed for the tube-lobby.

#

"...Look, all I'm saying is that if Matter-Eater Lad can eat anything, he should be able to eat The Invisible Woman's force field."

Olive shook her head. "Honestly, that makes _no_ sense whatsoever. It's a FORCE FIELD..."

As Otto and Olive made their way to their desks, they saw Ostara waiting for them.

"Oh, hey!" Otto smiled at her. "What happened? Oversleep?"

Ostara didn't answer. Then Otto saw the girl's expression.

"What's wrong? What... Oh no," He grabbed her shoulder. "You didn't get fired just for being late, did you?"

Thinking she understood the situation, Olive took over. "Ostara, Ms. O yells at everyone sooner or later. Just try to..."

"OSTARA!" Otto, Olive, and pretty much everyone else in headquarters jumped. Everyone except Ostara. "IN MY OFFICE! NOW!"

"Hoboy..." Otto sank into his chair and covered his face with his hand. "She must've just found out..."

"It's okay, Ostara," Olive comforted the rookie agent. "Just explain what happened and make sure not to do it again and..."

Ostara walked away from them up the stairs to Ms. O's office.

#

"Ostara..." Ms. O's tone was serious. "I've just gotten off the phone with the Odd Squad in Moose Factory."

Ostara didn't respond.

"They've never heard of you."

Ostara didn't respond.

Ms. O's voice softened. "What's going on, Ostara?"

Ostara struggled to reply. "I... I... I..."

Finally, she reached down, removed her badge, and handed it to Ms. O.

"I don't deserve to wear this. I don't deserve to be here. I don't... I wish... I...did..."

There was a sudden BOOM! outside the office. Ms. O jumped up and raced to see what had happened.

Ostara bowed her head. "I'm so sorry..."

#

Red and purple lightning erupted from the enormous swirling vortex high in the air in the center of Odd Squad headquarters. Below, torrential winds lashed at the agents, who ran for cover as furniture flew around them.

Ms. O emerged and was almost pulled into space by the winds. She seized the railing in front of her and looked around. "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"Ms. O!" Owen, tied to his chair, wheeled his way into the room, pulling himself along with his feet. "Someone tied me up and used my console to shut down the security systems!" The winds caught his chair and sent him spinning all around the room.

Ms. O fought to keep her feet on the floor. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO?"

Owen shook his head, still spinning like a top. "I got knocked out!" He shouted over the wind. "It happened when I was talking to Agent... Ostara?"

Emerging from Ms. O's office, Ostara walked slowly down the stairs to the first floor. She moved like a sleepwalker, completely expressionless, her eyes behind her thick glasses staring blankly into space. The wind rustled her hair but otherwise she seemed completely unaffected by the vortex.

Olive and Otto were crouched behind their desks, struggling to keep from being pulled away.

"Ostara!" Olive shouted at the girl walking past her. "Ostara! Do you know what's going on? Ostara!"

Otto's jaw dropped. "What's she doing?"

Oscar poked his head out from the lab. "Say, what's going on out here..." The wind caught him, pulling him along, his lab coat billowing around him like a sail. "WHOAH! WHOAH WHOAH! WHOAH!" He managed to flatten himself against the wall, clinging desperately with both hands. "WHAT in the..."

Then he saw the girl he'd taken to the zoo the day before walking toward the door to the tube lobby.

"Ostara?"

She pressed some buttons. The tube lobby doors opened.

"EHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Olive's eyes narrowed. "Todd."

Oscar's eyes widened. "Todd?"

The villain stepped through the doors. "It's ODD Todd now, remember?"

He reached into his pocket and produced a gadget. "Hey Oscar! Recognize this?"

He held it up so the scientist could get a good look at it. Oscar gasped.

"It's your blackholinator gadget! I... made a few adjustments."

Odd Todd stayed near the doors, out of the pull of the vortex overhead. The wind rustled his hair and made his suitcoat flap but that was all.

"Now it makes dimensional portals! Like the one right over your heads, for instance!" He smirked. "You guys won't be able to resist its pull much longer! Soon, you'll all be sucked into another dimension! A dimension not of sight or sound... But of ODD! And you'll be trapped there FOREVER!"

He flailed his arms about, cackling. Then he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.

"In the meantime, I've prepared a short speech." Unfolding the paper, he began reading aloud. "I'd like to thank all the little people who've helped me..."

Owen's eyes widened. "You had elves helping you?"

" _NO, I DIDN'T HAVE ELVES..."_ With considerable effort, Todd regained his composure. "It's not important... It doesn't matter... You're not going to spoil my moment..." He cleared his throat. "First, my gym coach, Mister Octobeck, for helping me develop the hostility and rage that's sustained me over the years..."

Olive saw O'Malley nearby clinging to an overturned chair. His hands were starting to slip. He looked over his shoulder, terrified. Olive managed to pull a gadget from her pocket and fire it at the little agent.

"Guminator!"

There was a flash of light and suddenly O'Malley's hands were covered in chewing gum, securing him to the chair. He breathed a sigh of relief. Then the gum started to stretch. Olive managed another shot, sticking his feet too, before the wind snatched the gadget from her hand and sent it flying into the vortex. Red, purple and black lightning crackled all around them.

Owen's chair was leaving the ground, with Owen still tied to it. Otto jumped up and grabbed it. Then he started leaving the ground too. Olive seized his ankles, struggling with all her might against the ferocious pull.

Meanwhile, Todd was still reading. "And I'd like to thank Ms. Varney, my third grade teacher, for understanding... HEY!" Todd's speech was torn from his hand and swirled up into the vortex. He shrugged. "But most of all, I'd like to thank the one person who helped make all this possible..."

Ostara was standing frozen by Todd's side. He reached over and flipped up her faceplate.

"My robot agent Ostara!"

The agents gaped. Todd slammed the faceplate back down. Ostara blinked.

"And not one of you even suspected." Todd cackled again. "Man, I am SO GOOD!"

Ostara's eyes scanned the crowd. She saw Olive and Otto struggling and, way in the back, Oscar staring at her in shock. She tried not to look at him.

Odd Todd stroked her hair. "Anything you'd like to say, Ostara?"

"I... I... I..." She looked at Oscar, then at Otto, then Olive. Then she looked at Oscar again. Her face went blank.

Then it came back. She looked at Oscar again, meeting his eyes. Then she turned to face Todd, snarling.

"I don't have to listen to you."

Then she grabbed the black-holinator out of his hand...

"HEY!"

...And hurled it into the vortex, just as a bolt of red lightning flashed.

The explosion slammed her against the wall. There was a crash and her plastic skin ruptured, exposing loose, hissing wires.

Odd Todd stumbled backwards, back into the tube lobby, the doors shutting behind him. The vortex swirled and vanished, taking the wind and lightning with it. The agents, the furniture, everything dropped back to the ground.

Otto blinked. "What just happened?"

"Hey!" Owen shouted as his wheels skidded and he tumbled sideways. "Still tied to a chair here, people!"

Ostara was sprawled on the floor, circuits popping and exploding. Black smoke was coming from her back where she'd hit the brick wall.

Olive was the first to reach her. "Ostara?"

One of Ostara's eyes had turned completely around in its socket. The other focused on Olive. "Izzz..." Her voice was unsteady, slow and wavering, like a radio fading in and out. "Izzz... Portal... Clozzzzzzze..."

"It is," Olive nodded, unaware she was crying. "It's closed. You saved us all."

Ms. O knelt beside them. "I think this belongs to you." Taking Ostara's badge from her pocket, she pinned it back onto the agent's coat.

"I can fix this..." Oscar dashed over with his tools, trying to fight his way past the sparks from Ostara's exposed wiring. "I can fix this. It'll be okay... I... I..."

Ostara grabbed his hand and smiled at him. He couldn't help smiling back.

Her smile froze on her face and her fingers went limp. There was a final explosion of sparks, then nothing.

Oscar was still kneeling over her. "I... I... I..."

"YOU STUPID ROBOT!"

Todd was back. He'd pushed his way out of the tube lobby and ran over to Ostara, screaming and kicking the robot with all his might.

"THE PERFECT PLAN, I HAD THE PERFECT PLAN AND YOU HAD TO RUIN IT, YOU ROTTEN, WORTHLESS ROBOT, DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I WORKED..."

Oscar stood slowly, drawing himself up to his full height.

Then he punched Todd in the nose as hard as he could.

Which, frankly, wasn't that hard. Todd stumbled back, more startled than hurt. "You little..."

Instantly, Olive was between them. "Get out of here, Todd," she said with a dangerous calm.

Todd looked at them. Otto was then by her side, and Ms. O, and the rest of the agents.

"All right," he growled. "But I'll b..."

"NOW!"

Todd fled.

Otto knelt down to pick Ostara up. "We'd better get her someplace... YOW!" He yelped, picking a multi-colored shard from his hand. "Why'd she have broken glass in her pocket?"

#

"I don't understand," Olive said to Ms. O and Otto sometime later in Ms. O's office. "She's a robot. Can't we just build another body for her?"

Ms. O shook her head. "Her electronic brain and all her memory circuits were fried. We could make a new one, but it wouldn't be Ostara. Just a copy."

The three of them contemplated the fallen agent's badge.

"I don't suppose we'll ever know how she managed to defy her programming..."

Otto sighed. "I think I do."

He turned toward the lab where Oscar was sitting alone listening to his great-aunt's phonograph records and staring at the table.

Ms. O looked at the two agents. "I don't really have any assignments for you right now..."

The three of them went down to join Oscar in his lab. They stayed with him and talked with him for the rest of the day.

#


End file.
